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McCain picks a woman, makes history

Unless you're a commercial fisherman or live in Alaska, the only Palin you probably heard about before today was actor Michael Palin. That changed forever today when Sen. John McCain tapped Sarah Palin as his running mate. The 44-year-old governor of Alaska now has secured her place in history as the first woman Republican vice-presidential nominee.

Just think. Palin herself was 20 years old the summer of 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro made history after she was picked by Walter Mondale as his number two on the Democratic ticket. While Ferraro was setting off on her historic campaign trail, the young Sarah Heath was competing in the Miss Alaska pageant (a runner up, she won a scholarship that helped her attend the University of Idaho, where she majored in journalism.) Palin already made history two years ago, when she was elected Alaska's first woman governor after serving as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

The surprise choice of Palin has thrown political commentators into a maelstrom of analysis and speculation. How will Palin hold up in a debate with Joe Biden? Does her choice give momentum to McCain's campaign? And so and so on. But let's back off all the political calculus for a moment and just savor this moment of history. We now have a woman on a national ticket who is a working mom with five children. She faces the balancing act so many of us do every day. Her oldest son is getting ready to deploy to Iraq. Her youngest son is an infant born earlier this year with Down syndrome. And she has teenage daughters.

She knows what it's like to multitask. And that's good, because she now faces 66 days of the most intense multitasking any of us can imagine. And whatever happens when she reaches that finish line on Nov. 4, she has earned her place in history in an election year that has indelibly changed the landscape for women in politics-thanks, too, to Sen. Hillary Clinton.